From The Kitchen Table.

From the Kitchen Table
The Desk of Lynne Schaefer February 2009

Luke and Joel
“The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:14

Dear Friends and Family

It’s hard for us to believe that we have now been in Mbala for over 10 years. Joel was just a bit younger than Luke when we moved here and he is now eleven. We came with just a trailer and only a few possessions and now we have a house full of stuff! Every time another missionary family or ex-pat leave we gain and now we are getting short of space! It is amazing to see how the Lord has provided for us over the years. It was about 15 years ago that Grant felt called to come and minister here in Mbala. It took 5 years before we could come. He first had to go to college for 4 years and then we worked with our church for a year. We praise the Lord for his provision and faithfulness to us over the years.
Grant's calendar for the year is filling up with all the various opportunities he has been given to minister. He no longer has to seek out places to minister they come to him to ask him to teach.
On March 6th, our little Luke will be a year old. Praise the Lord for this little boy that was added to our family and been a true joy to us all!

Lightning Strikes

With the rainy season comes the lightning! This time it was our house that got hit. Praise the Lord that it was only our printer that went up in smoke. This is very frustrating for Grant, as he has to print out his sermons and tests etc for his classes. Our kettle also blew from a power surge or something like that, but that is not as devastating as our printer going up in smoke. We were able to buy a new kettle right here in Mbala.

Funny Stories from the Past

Looking back to our first years in Zambia, we can see just how much we have learnt and grown over the years. We were such city slickers when we first came. When we started our first vegetable garden we had no idea what we were doing! We can remember planting carrot seeds one by one. If you have ever seen carrots seeds you will have a good laugh about that - they are tiny! You never plant them one by one!

When we were given our first chicken we were so excited, especially Grant, who loves eggs. He asked a Zambian, "When will this chicken give us eggs?" The man looked at Grant with a strange look and sadly told him that it would not give us any eggs. Grant was so disappointed and asked him why? He said, "Sorry Mr Grant, this one is a male!" Yip, we must have looked like such idiots to the locals.

It has taken many years to learn the culture and see just how many mistakes we must have made over the years. We are still learning and are just grateful to the Zambians for being patient with us. They have taught us a lot and we can only pray that God will use us in spite of ourselves. That is the great thing about God - He uses us while He continues to change us. If He had to wait for us to be perfect before He used us, He never would be able to! We no longer feel like foreigners or strangers, Mbala feels like home.
We now have an auto bank machine here in Mbala. This is a truly terrific thing! We used to have to travel a 320km round trip to the nearest auto bank and if it was broken Grant would have to get on the bus and travel a 2000km round trip just to draw our support! Now, we just have a five-minute drive into town – life is so much easier!

So, we praise the Lord for providing for us, keeping us safe, restoring us to health when we have been sick and allowing us to serve Him here in Mbala for the past 10 years.
Thank you to you too for praying for us and supporting us over the years. We are most grateful!
God bless, as you too continue to serve him.

With Love,
Lynne Schaefer and Family (Grant, Joel, Hope, Charley, Olivia and Luke)
For more photo’s go to grantandlynneschaefer@blogspot.com